Hammer

A tool with a handle and a heavy head, used for breaking stones, pounding nails, or shaping metal.

Wooden hammer
Wooden hammer (© Giovanni Dall'Orto, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons) Hammer

About Hammer

The hammer was an instrument about 30 centimeters (1 foot) long. It had a handle, usually made of wood, to which was attached a stone, wooden, or (less frequently) metal head. The handle was fitted into a hole in the hammer’s head.

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Key References

Judges 5:26

She reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she shattered and pierced his temple.

1 Kings 6:7

The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

All Scripture References (18)

Exodus (7)
Exodus 25:18

Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,

Exodus 25:31

Then you are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.

Exodus 25:36

The buds and branches are to be all of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.

Exodus 37:7

He made two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,

Exodus 37:17

Then he made the lampstand out of pure hammered gold, all of one piece: its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.

Exodus 37:22

The buds and branches were all of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.

Exodus 39:3

They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut threads from them to interweave with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen—the work of a skilled craftsman.

Numbers (3)
Numbers 8:4

This is how the lampstand was constructed: it was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms, fashioned according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.

Numbers 10:2

“Make two trumpets of hammered silver to be used for calling the congregation and for having the camps set out.

Numbers 17:3

and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, because there must be one staff for the head of each tribe.

Judges (2)
Judges 4:21

But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died.

Judges 5:26

She reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she shattered and pierced his temple.

1 Kings (1)
1 Kings 6:7

The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

Isaiah (2)
Isaiah 41:7

The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled.

Isaiah 44:12

The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

Jeremiah (3)
Jeremiah 10:4

They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

Jeremiah 23:29

“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

Jeremiah 50:23

How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!